Serie A: 5 Things We Learnt from Week 7
Last week we endured a stuttering round of fixtures with a lack of goals and excitement, but this weekend we witnessed a thrilling round of games and evidence of why this is the best league in Europe in terms of competitiveness and quality.
Furthermore, we have the current World Club Champions, Inter Milan, in 16th place and Atalanta who without a six-point penalty (alleged match-fixing) would make it five points between 10th and top as they would sit joint second with Lazio.
This is the smallest gap between that many teams in Europe's strongest leagues; Primera Division, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Premier League (where the gulf between leaders Manchester City and ninth-place Stoke is 13), and Eredivisie.
We saw 27 goals this weekend grace Italy's top league—only the Premier League saw more—yet those same critics who lambasted Serie A for what can only be described as an anomaly (five 0-0 draws) are not brave enough to praise the league when the opposite happens the following week.
Still, there are plenty of talking points for calcio lovers that I will jump right in to now.
Genoa: Brave Malesani Is the Right Man to Guide the Grifone Forward
1 of 6Alberto Malesani has borne the brunt of a heavy dosage of pressure in recent weeks.
His Genoa side's winless streak has new reached four games, but there is reason for optimism after their visit to the pristine Juventus Arena to face the Bianconeri.
Genoa entered Saturday night's game in dreadful form, having only managed one point from three games against relegation candidates Chievo, Parma and Lecce.
With Juventus away and Roma at home to come this week, there was a distinct possibility that capricious owner Enrico Preziosi could sack the manager if they lost both games, a distinct possibility.
But this Genoa side raise their game against quality opponents and they proved against Juventus on Sunday that they should be pushing for a European position this season.
Ambitious tactics startled Juventus as Genoa dictated large spells of the game by assuming possession with the extra man in central midfield—Felipe Seymour.
The Chilean protected the back four as Miguel Veloso and Marco Rossi worked their socks off in midfield.
Even more impressive was the adventurous full backs, Giandomenico Mesto and Luca Antonelli, who gave Genoa width and allowed the brilliant Alexander Merkel to roam in behind Rodrigo Palacio.
Merkel produced a sparkling display and could become this season's incarnation of Javier Pastore, emerging as the next standout trequartista in Serie A.
The German sent in an inviting cross for Rossi to head home for the first equaliser before almost scoring on an outrageous flick before thumping the bar with a towering header.
Malesani must surely build his side around this precocious talent and watch the Rossoblu get in amongst the European places.
Catania: Vincenzo Montella Is Italy's Next Great Manager
2 of 6Vincenzo Montella has guided Catania to a current eighth place ranking in Serie A, with the Elefanti embarking upon a four-game unbeaten run during a spell of difficult games.
Montella has picked up five points in games against Juventus, Inter Milan and Fiorentina and looks to have guided his side away from a likely relegation battle—for now.
Formed by an eclectic mixture of Argentines and Italians, there seems to be real chemistry in the group, who are thriving under the guidance of L'Aeroplanino.
It has been a blessing in disguise for the 37-year-old skipper to have been released by new AS Roma owner Thomas DiBenedetto.
After gaining a great education working with the youth sides of the Giallorossi, Montella now has the opportunity to experience life as as a senior-team coach and experiment without the stress and rigours that come with working in the cauldron that is the Stadio Olimpico.
Montella is one to keep an eye on, as his flamboyant fashion sense is proving contagious on the pitch for Catania, who have begun to find the back of the net regularly during the last three games, all the while performing with swashbuckling style.
Roma: Lamela, Just Another Bright Young Talent Set to Take Serie A by Storm
3 of 6Giallorossi fans have waited for this moment for almost 11 weeks now.
After such bated anticipation, they finally got to watch Erik Lamela play for Roma after his blockbuster €19 million move from River Plate.
The Argentine is unquestionably one of the world's most talented young players, and wasted little time in making a good impression on his new fans.
Lamela became an immediate star after his boyhood club River Plate spiralled in to crisis through a string of dreadful results.
The fans pinned their hopes on the young talent to drag them out of the mess that previous managers and players had left them in.
Unfortunately he was not able to prevent River Plate from relegation and chaos ensued in Buenos Aires.
Lamela was wise to get out of the crisis-hit club as Roma pounced for his signature after paying an exuberant fee.
That price tag was only magnified after the starlet shone at the 2011 FIFA World Youth Cup, scoring Argentina's winner against eventual semi-finalists Mexico in the group stages.
A sweet left foot with an eye for a delicious pass separate Lamela from most of his contemporaries. In just a few short weeks, he has shown Roma management enough, who now appear determined to build their future predominantly around their new wonder-boy.
Sunday showed just why they were prepared to invest so much as the Argentina cut inside from the right to curl a delightful shot inside the far left post as the despairing Alexandros Tzorvas helplessly lept to his right, but to no avail.
Inevitably Lamela will blossom in to a world class player on his day but manager Luis Enrique and the Roma fans might just see more glimpses of this unmissable talent sooner than they thought they would.
Atalanta: Maxi Moralez Outshining Parma's Brilliant Giovinco
4 of 6Maxi Moralez has been a phenomenon since his arrival at Atalanta this past summer.
Stefano Colantuono has built his side around the diminutive Argentine, who arrived for what could turn out to be a paltry €8 million, with Atalanta securing access to 50 percent of the rights.
A surprisingly large fee for a club only just promoted from Serie B, but the Bergamo club have big ambitions and they needed to add quality so that they could hit the ground running in order to erode the points deficit inflicted by the club's conviction in last season's infamously widespread scandal.
The Nerazzurri have flown out the traps and currently hold the joint second-best record in the league—testimony to the superb job done by Colantuono.
Moralez is pivotal to this side's fortunes. Atalanta possess other key weapons, but Moralez allows everything to click in to place with his dainty touches and ability to link the off-the-ball runners that are put in place.
Four goals in seven games is a superb return that will attract many admirers from across Europe fast.
La Dea will be praying that he can continue his exceptional form until Christmas to make the side all but safe from relegation in case the vultures arrive to snap him up.
A small player without any extraordinary physical attributes is taking the notoriously tough Serie A in his stride which will appeal to any manager across Europe knowing that the risk that Moralez can succeed at any level is minimal.
AC Milan: Kevin Prince Boateng Is One of the Best Ball Strikers in the World
5 of 6This was perhaps learnt throughout the entire week in European football.
Over the course of seven days, Kevin Prince Boateng inspired AC Milan with four goals and three terrific strikes that gave anybody watching a clinic in proper shooting technique.
First, came a super strike against Bate Borisov at the Giuseppe Meazza in the Champions League, where Boateng blasted the ball in off the underside of the cross bar.
An angry Boateng reacted with a heated celebration, pumping his chest with his fist before sending an angry stare towards the executive boxes, it would seem, in reaction to criticism that he goes to too many parties at the expense of his on-field performance.
Surprisingly Massimiliano Allegri rested the Ghanaian from the start against Lecce, but Boateng was soon to be introduced after a catastrophic first period saw Lecce stun the Rossoneri in to a 3-0 deficit.
Boateng arrived before the second half could get under way, and seemed to be a man possessed as he uncorked two terrific efforts—one of which beat Massimiliano Benassi but brushed past the far post by inches before the second effort was beaten away by the Italian shot-stopper.
Boateng did not need another invitation as he struck a sweet left foot volley that angled in to the top right corner to give Milan hope of a comeback.
Moments later, teammate Antonio Cassano again set up Boateng, this time on his right. It was all the space he needed to rifle in to the top left corner from the edge of the penalty area.
For good measure, Boateng claimed his hat-trick and the equaliser just 18 minutes after being introduced.
It was later confirmed that he is only the second player in Serie A history to score a hat-trick after coming on as a substitute.
Milan now have another player with the ability to regularly score from long range after Andrea Pirlo's departure last season, something that can prove highly advantageous when the opposition defend very deeply in order to nullify the array of attacking talent that Allegri has at his disposal.
Stats Corner Week 6: Results, Capocannoniere and Fantasistas
6 of 6Week 7 results:
Fiorentina 2, Catania 2
Jovetic (2) - Delvecchio, Lopez
Juventus 2, Genoa 2
Matri (2) - Rossi, Caracciolo
Lecce 3, Milan 4
Giacomazzi, Oddo, Grossmuller - Boateng (3), Yepes
Inter 1, Chievo 0
Motta
Parma 1, Atalanta 2
Valdez - Moralez (2)
Roma 1, Palermo 0
Lamela
Gonzalez, Calaio
Udinese 3, Novara 0
Di Natale (2), Domizzi
Bologna 0, Lazio 2
Acquafresca (OG), Lulic
Capocannoniere:
Di Natale (Udinese) 6
Palacio (Genoa) 5
Giovinco (Parma) 5
Jovetic (Fiorentina) 4
Moralez (Atalanta) 4
Denis (Atalanta) 4
Osvaldo (Roma) 4
Klose (Lazio) 4
Boateng (Milan) 3
Calaio (Siena) 3
Cavani (Napoli) 3
Matri (Juventus) 3
Miccoli (Palermo) 3
Milito (Inter) 3
Cerci (Fiorentina) 3
Marchisio (Juventus) 3
Rigoni (Novara) 3
Hernanes (Lazio) 3
Fantasistas:
Cassano (Milan) 4 assists
Pirlo (Juventus) 3
Aquilani (Milan) 3
Vargas (Fiorentina) 3
Vucinic (Juventus) 3
Palacio (Genoa) 3
Miccoli (Palermo) 3
Bonaventura (Atalanta) 2
Armero (Udinese) 2
Morimoto (Novara) 2
Bergessio (Catania) 2
Mauri (Lazio) 2
Di Michele (Lecce) 2
Floccari (Parma) 2
Lavezzi (Napoli) 2
Hamsik (Napoli) 2
Jorquera (Genoa) 2
D'Agostino (Siena ) 2
Biabiany (Parma) 2
Klose (Lazio) 2
Rigoni (Novara) 2
Rosi (Roma) 2
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